Commissioner Spotlight: Troy Krumm
Back in 1979, Troy Krumm was hired by Link-Belt Cranes and, apart from a brief stint with a Link-Belt distributor, has been employed by the company ever since. His crane roots go further back even than that, however; his father was the service manager at a Link-Belt distributor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Troy cut his crane teeth doing odd jobs around the shop, helping the mechanics. “I kind of grew up in the industry,” Krumm says. Eventually he found himself going out on field service calls. “That’s how I learned how to operate and run a crane,” he recalls.
Throughout the years Krumm has held a variety of positions and in a variety of locations around the country. Today he manages a group of seven North American district service reps, three international district service reps, and three structural welders.
In his work as a Commissioner, Krumm said he brings a different perspective from many since he comes from the manufacturing side of the business. During his tenure on the Commission, he has served on the Written Exam Management Committee and is currently a member on the Practical Exam Management Committee.
Part of Troy’s interest in and involvement with NCCCO is based on the fact that he is one of the first people to be called in the event of a crane accident.
“The majority of crane accidents that I have ever investigated are avoidable,” Krumm says. “Usually it’s because someone did something they were not supposed to be doing.”
As a manufacturer, Krumm says Link-Belt builds machines to be as safe as they can be, but having properly trained operators is critical. No matter how safe the manufacturer builds the machine, it’s ultimately up to the people who operate it to ensure that the job site is safe.
“That’s the job of NCCCO: to make the industry much safer and a better environment for everyone to work in,” Krumm says. “The gathering of people from all over the construction and crane industry is what makes NCCCO unique. You have people from manufacturers, operating engineers, wire rope people, industry experts, insurance folks, etc. It’s a diverse group of people coming together for one common goal: to make an industry safer.”
Indeed, statistics do show that the industry is safer now than in the past, with the incidence of fatal crane accidents and crane accidents diminishing. Krumm attributes that reduction in no small part to the work of NCCCO.
“The old days of an operator running a crane by the seat of their pants is completely gone,” Krumm said. “New operators have to be extremely skilled, intelligent, and computer savvy, and they have to understand everything that goes into operating a crane. NCCCO plays a vital role in seeing that people have the necessary skills.”